West Virginia ‘Serpent-Handling’ Preacher Dies from Snake Bite
Pastor Mack Randall Wolford Dead at 44
Rev. Billy Ray Sunday
<chris†wire> Pastor Mack Randall Wolford, 44, of Bramwell, passed away on Monday, May 28, 2012 after being bitten by a rattlesnake during an outdoor church service at the Panther Wildlife Management Area in West Virginia. Wolford’s sister, Robin Vanover, told chris†wire affiliate ABC News that 30 minutes into the pastor’s rousing sermon, he passed around a poisonous timber rattlesnake, which eventually bit him. Mack had been a pastor at the Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus in Matoaka, W.Va.
Born on May 26, 1968 in Pike County, Ky., and son of Vicie Hicks Haywood of Bluefield, W. Va. and the late Mack Ray Wolford, he is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Dawson Wolford, his mother Vicie Hicks Haywood of Bluefield, W. Va., his daughter, Latisha McClemore of Statesville, N.C.; three stepchildren, Eva Krueger of La Plata, Md., Glenn K. Mitchell Jr. of Lake, W.Va., Brady Scott Mitchell of Statesville, N.C.; two brothers, Kevin Wolford of Bluefield, W.Va., Christopher Wolford of Paynesville, Ky.; three sisters, Lesha G. Mullins of Phelps, Ky., Robin Vanover of Bluefield, W.Va., Shauna Scott of Abingdon, Va.; and nine grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held on Saturday, June 2, 2012 at The Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus Church in Matoaka, W.Va. at 11:00 a.m. where the Rev. Donald Dover of Rutherford, N.C. and the Rev. Roy Lee Christian will conduct the funeral service. Burial will follow the funeral service at Hicks Family Cemetery in Phelps, Ky. where friends and family will serve as pallbearers. Cravens-Shires Funeral Home is serving the Wolford family.
We here at chris†wire extend our sincere condolences to Mack’s family and friends.
- Sinful
- Suspicious
- Scared
- Sad
- Amused
- Laughing Out Loud
Author: Rev. Billy Ray
Rev. Billy Ray Sunday is 3rd generation preacher. He lives in Forkland, AL and is a journalist for chrisTwire.com.
11:18 pm
Serves him right for messing with a damn rattlesnake in the first place…good riddance
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2:05 am
WoW “O” even by your standards that was a quick dismissal of the man’s life. Is it you don’t like snakes? I’ve heard through the grapevine that Rev. Billy Ray runs a ‘snake handling’ church somewhere down South. Or is it you just don’t like Christians?
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3:40 pm
It’s common knowledge that rattlesnakes are deadly…It’s his own damn fault for messin with the snake in the first place
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12:55 am
If these hillbillies knew their bible they’d know that Mark 16 is pseudepigraphical bullshit that shouldn’t even be in the canon.
From said forgery: “They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
I see plenty of faith healing and plenty of snake handling, but not a lot of drinking of bleach and insecticide at these churches. Do they not really have faith in their own forgery?
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3:55 am
@ exbrony… Actually you’re incorrect. Drinking poison as mentioned in Mark: 15-16 is practiced in our faith. We never use the items you mention, mostly strychnine.
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9:38 am
Well, Billy Ray, you and your flock really are people of great faith. I take it that you only take the strychnine in small doses…
And don’t forget to milk those rattlers before you pass them ’round the church =)
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10:06 am
@ exbrony – If we “milked” the rattlers before they’re passed around then why is Mack Wolford dead? Why are roughly 100 people who’ve been practicing Signs Following faith who do handle serpents been killed from snakebites over the last 115 years?
If you prepare a weak strychnine drink, or milked the snakes before every service, then it only shows your lack of faith, what is the point of that?
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10:38 am
Well, Rev, I’m not suggesting that you do already milk the rattlers; I’m just suggesting that it might be circumspect. In fact, a lot of snake-handling churches do just that.
But you’re entirely right. Milking the snakes or diluting the rat poison would show a lack of faith that would defeat the purpose of the theatre.
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10:40 am
But, quite apart from all the deaths, there is still the small problem of Mark 16 being a forgery…
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10:28 pm
One wing-nut down, about a million to go.
Too bad this wasn’t the guy in NC who preached that beating your effiminate sons is acceptable, or the guy in IN who taught his son the ‘no homo’s going to heaven’ song.
What a bunch of right wing, nut jobs. Only in WV where there are 1.8 million people, and only 4 strands of DNA.
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5:47 pm
I guess this God wasn’t there to protect him.. Oh wait, thats right theres no God.
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3:24 am
The fact that the snake bit him is proof that his faith was not strong. I do hope he made his peace with Christ before he breathed his last breath.
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3:41 am
That’s like saying that the reason someone got shot was because their faith wasn’t strong. He did something stupid, got bit, and paid the price.
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4:05 am
Brother Cassidy as you may or may not known my church in Alabama is a Signs Following church. We take up serpents each Sunday. There are cases like the one you mention where one who dies from the snakes bite failed somehow in his faith. But I have also seen instances where the fact that the snake bit him is seen as God’s will. A brother or sister called home.
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9:47 am
Exactly, Billy Ray. It’s a win-win either way.
If you ever find yourself on a mission down here in Australia, do look me up. I can arrange to have to have you handle all manner of interesting serpents, including taipans, tigers and king browns.
But our antipodean squamates tend to be a bit friskier and more bitey than your American ones. Maybe we can start you off with a fat, docile red-bellied black and work up from there.
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9:57 am
Come to think of it, Billy Ray, do you also handle other kinds of venomous critters?
Could I perhaps interest you in a blue-ringed octopus, a redback spider, a box jellyfish or a platypus?
Better still, what about an irukandji?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irukandji_jellyfish
There would be no better way to demonstrate the power of belief in Yahweh than by climbing into a bathtub full of those deadly little bastards.
We could even arrange to have it televised on the Australian Christian Channel, which also carries Pat Robertson’s show and local creationists who draw pictures of whales swimming with plesiosaurs.
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2:03 am
I’ll stand corrected with your knowledgeable insight, Reverend. I am not a member of of that style of church so I apologize if I overstepped my bounds and reported anything erroneous.
My prayers still go out to Pastor Mack Randall Wolford in that he is now in peace with Jesus.
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12:08 pm
Who the devil would decide to be that close to a rattlesnake in general?! They’re dangerous and no matter how strong your faith is, you’re bound to be attacked one way or another unless you have proper training, which I highly doubt this man did.
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1:29 pm
Wonderful report Rev. Billy Ray. Your caring shines a positive light over us all.
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7:35 am
Guess one of “Gods” creatures objected to being handled by someone who did not truly believe in god
Bet They dig a hole in the ground so he can lay a little closer to his true god (saten)
if he was truly christian they would cremate him so his soul ascends to heaven with the smoke of his burning body
then again burning him(cremating ) is this not the first step on the route to Hell
OH i’m so confused
if you bury him he is six foot closer to saten (he can continue to dig his own way down)
if you cremate him its the start of the burning in Hell
guess he should have been a Buddhist he could have been reborn Perhaps as a Alter boy ready to pleasure all those Red neck priests and pastors
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